horrific economic collapse, painfully slow recovery. has president obama done enough to save his job? we'll have the answer in just four days. welcome to a special jobs report edition of "cnn newsroom." i'm ali velshi reporting live from toledo, ohio, the state that may decide this election. >> welcome to our viewers around the world as well. i'm christine romans in new york. we just got a look at what may be the last final political football in this election. the u.s. labor department released the final monthly jobs report before the election and ali, it was a solid report. >> yeah. 171,000 positions were created in october. we were anticipating 125,000. we were also anticipating, at least the economists we spoke to were experiencing a bump up in the unemployment rate from 7.8% to 7.9%.

that is what we saw. the two prior months were revised. that typically happens but they were revised higher. separate survey, as we said, deals with these two numbers. you'll see these headlines, 171,000 jobs created, 7.9% unemployment rate. you'll see them all day and all weekend. both president obama and governor romney promised that more can be done. over the next hour we'll look at whether these are presidential plans or presidential wish list s, christine. >> both candidates will try to spin this number to their advantage, ali. here are the facts, quite frnkly. numbers here show a jobs recovery, 150,000 jobs on average created each month this year. but that's not enough to make everyone feel like it's a robust labor market or it's really recovering. there's something here, ali, obviously, for everyone. you're going to get spin from both sides. unemployment rate from 7.9% still feels uncomfortable.

the private sector is creating jobs, ali. >> absolutely. austan goolsbee, former chairman of the president's council of economic advisers. peter morissey is a professor at the university of maryland school of business and diane swonk is the chief economist with meserow. i know the case can be made that this president brought us back from the brink. did he bring us back fast enough and could this recovery have been stronger? austan? >> you know, it's always hard to say something counterfactual like that. if you look around the world, while the u.s. growth is modest, it's about the fastest growth rate of all the advanced countries around the earth. so i think it's been a very tough spot for the world economy. and it's not that comfortable but i think you did see the

first year dramatic decline and then since that first year, 15 months you've seen some pretty substantial recovery that still has a long way to go before people are going to feel like we're fully recovered. >> austan, let me jump in there. we do still have a long way to go. a couple of charts that a supporter of governor romney would hope people would focus on. first labor force participation rate. it rose slightly to 63.8%. look at this number. back to 1981. let me give you another one. second, the so-called underemployment rate now stands at 14.6%. hey, that's a little bit better. but you know what? this is still a number that a lot of people say is the real feel unemployment rate. >> you're getting -- let's not get a little confused. if you take that real unemployment rate, that's down substantially more over the last three years than the observed regular unemployment rate is

down. so you don't want to compare two different numbers. you should take any series and look at that one over time. and, as i say, that one went way up and comes down even more than the other one. labor force participation -- the population is aging. labor force participation rates have been declining under most presidents of the last 20, 30 years. that's the weakest spot in the labor market. but i think you want to be a little careful of imputing what the labor force participation should be when we're in the middle of the baby boomers retiring. >> peter, you're a conservative and you say, quote, if president obama is re-elected, the jobs picture will worsen. but it's been a good week of reports for obama. home prices are up. consumer confidence hit its highest level in four years. incomes and spending are up.

how do you still, peter, make the case that the u.s. economy is broken? >> well, we're just not grow in at the pace we should. the obama administration has sold america on the notion this is the worst crisis since the great depression. when mr. reagan took office we had double-digit inflation, double-digit unemployment and the jobless rate peaked at 10.8%. when he ran for re-election, the unemployment rate was down much lower and the economy was growing at 6.3%. three times what mr. obama has accomplished. you know, if the participation rate was the same today as it was when the recovery began -- not too long ago, mr. goolsbee, the unemployment rate would be 9.6%. in fact, baby boomer's participation is actually increasing. because in this poor economy, their retirement accounts are worth so little and they're not getting any interest on their cds that they're going back to work. the labor force -- >> hold on a second. but, peter, peter, peter, peter,

peter, we're four days from election. just tell me, we -- if you want to relitigate the recession, we can do that. we'll need another hour to do that. let's talk about job creation. both presidential candidates have made a promise they will create 12 million jobs in four years. once was in world war ii, the last two times were under reagan and clinton where economic growth was in excess of 4%. your an economist. are you thinking we're going to get 4% growth in the next couple of years? >> yeah, i do. if mr. romney is elected, we will get 4% to 5% growth. >> why? >> because he will attack the real problem. >> why? >> stimulus spending is like a band-aid. it's a temporary -- we need to solve the problems with regard to china, reopen our energy sector and have reasonable regulations to business so they're not afraid to invest. if we grew the economy at the pace that mr. reagan did, we would surely get 12 million jobs, even more than that and we would get unemployment down to some acceptable level.

>> the tax drop under reagan, which everybody likes to quote, was significantly larger than anything being proposed, including by mitt romney and anything more than we can afford right now. but stay right there, peter. we'll come back to this. >> ali, let me bring in diane swonk, who can take the politics out of this for a moment. we're not going to wake up to the same economic problems on wednesday just because there's a different president, right? it's going to be the same situation wednesday morning as tuesday night. >> absolutely. and i think one of the important issues here is let's keep focus on what's going on here. labor force participation rates, lot of games being played with that. it peaked in 2000 when we had really low unemployment rates and anyone with a pulse -- there's a book written about a nudist that got a job working the midnight shift. i wouldn't want to sit in his seat afterwards. i mean, he worked in the nude. i don't want to vision visualize

this. but that was the period. half reduction in participation rate is due to demographics. the baby boomers are just turning 65. the birth rate between 45 and 47 went up by more than 30%. we do know that some people are taking 62, they've been unemployed for a long time. they did pay into social security and don't think there's any alternative. it is important that you're seeing more people throw their hat in the ring. it's not enough jobs but it is consistent with consumer confidence where they said there were more jobs out there than being reported and felt more hopeful about their job prospects going forward. we saw that. we're also seeing very important details. dirt is always in the details. residential construction, specialty residential construction, home values have picked up or are no longer falling. that is the biggest effect out there. pent-up demand in remodeling is showing up in this data. weakness in this data is still

in the manufacturing sector. we created manufacturing jobs. austan pointed out we're the strongest economy out there. internally related we did better. manufacturing sides, multinational, they were declined because exports have been weak, china has been weaker and so has europe. you have a tale of two economies, there's a relay race going on. now the manufacturing sector hands off to the consumer and the housing market, you would really rather see a marathon where we're all running together. >> austan, i picked on peter about this because the 12 million jobs in four years depends on 4% economic growth. the obama team has said the same thing, that they can come up with 12 million in four years. the math works out the same. the economy has to grow at 4%. do you see it happening? i don't so it happening. >> i don't think you quite would need all the way up to 4%

growth. let me disagree with you a little there. you've seen over the last 2 1/2 years a rate of job creation that's around 2 million a year. so you would just need 3 million a year. and i think if you got up to 3%, 3.5%, you could see that. over the next 6 to 12 months is your weakest spot in that because, as diane said, you've got china, europe, you've got -- we're getting no extra boost from around the world. and we've got all of these issues of the fiscal cliff, which we've talked about on this show before, ali. if you can get past that first six to 12 months, then you would be a little more confident. >> can i weigh in a little bit on -- i am actually a little more optimistic than austan regardless of who is president. it matters if we get credible deficit reduction out there. what's important is the housing market could be a big upset surprise. housing market coming back and

state and local government still deteriorating, but if they just plateau out and are no longer a drag, the do i nynamics of thatd mean more growth. still 2013 the diceyest part of the equation right now. the romney campaign issued a press release saying it's a sad reminder that our economy is at a virtual standstichlt polar opposite view of austan goolsbee. not everyone is feeling the recovery. i'll tell you who got left behind right after the break. [ male announcer ] you are a business pro.

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problems breathing while sleeping; and blood clots in the legs. common side effects include skin redness or irritation where applied, increased red blood cell count, headache, diarrhea, vomiting, and increase in psa. see your doctor, and for a 30-day free trial, go to axiron.com. the economy added 171,000 jobs in october. that's good news. not everyone is feeling it. first, african-americans, the unemployment rate for that worker group stands at 14.3%. that's compared with 7.9% overall. and recent college graduates

also suffering here. researchers at northwestern -- northeastern university rather found that nearly half of recent college graduates are unemployed or not working at a college level field. that will have implications for years and years to come as they start their careers. >> in fact, i just spoke to somebody in youngstown, ohio, went back to school to get the degree because she knows these statistics and says she's earning less than if she were working at mcdonald's. candy crowley is joining us now, the host of cnn's "state of the union." african-american and young people strongly supported president obama four years ago. how does the president have to look at this? can he expect the same enthusiastic support this time given these are two groups whose situation has not improved dramatically under president obama? >> it isn't a matter of strong support. as far as we can tell certainly in the african-american

community there's still incredibly strong support for president obama and there is still a majority of strong support among young people. the question is, will they come out in the numbers that they did? are they discouraged enough to go, you know what? forget it. it isn't so much enthusiasm. what the obama campaign has concentrated on, you saw it with mtv. you saw it with even a little bit with joe biden last night, showing up on popular tv. they've been trying to drive out that youth vote. they've been on college campuses. their turnout machines always involve college campuses, texting, social network. looking at those figures, we're seeing that unemployment among 20 to 24-year-olds actually went up this month from last month. so it is a grim picture for that particular demographic, which is the president's demographic. so the question is, can he still drive them out on, you know, the

promises of the future? i think african-american votes, woef heard a lot about how they're not enthusiastic. everyone i've talked to said they are just not seeing that in early voting. they say that the numbers are up in terms of african-americans or at least even to what it was last time around. so it isn't so much african-americans, i think, who are still there in large numbers and large percentages, but the youth vote is quite problematic for the president. >> who can fix it? and who thinks -- which candidate can fix it? number one issue is jobs. if that's the issue be voters take to the ballot box in a very close election, it might spell trouble if you look at these polls. the pew center found 50% of these voters said romney would do a better job of improving the job situation, just 42% said president obama. neither candidate, i can tell you, from a business reporter standpoint, has created a strong

plan. >> selling his business experience, it sold very well. it took a huge dip over the summer when all of the bain capital ads came out, when the obama campaign completely pounded mitt romney on the airwaves for what he did as a businessman. but we saw the comeback during that first debate when people took a look at mitt romney and said, oh, look, he seems to know what he's talking about. the president put in a subpar kind of performance in that first debate and we saw mitt romney's numbers rise and surpass the president's. two other numbers you already know, christine, one of them is consumer confidence. even if it's bad now, if you think it's going to get better, your going to vote on that. and the other one is that question about who understands you best, who understands your loif, who understand your needs. and president obama always ranks higher than governor romney does in that.

>> than romney does, yeah. candy, thanks so much for that. candy crowley, joining us. i've been calling it a ridiculous pledge initially for mitt romney and followed up by president obama, that they'll create 12 million jobs in four years. president obama said the same thing. i say it all the time. based on campaign math -- in other words, it just doesn't add up. we'll talk to one of the architects of that plan. he is here to prove me wrong. ♪ ♪

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171,000 jobs created last month. mitt romney has a very different image in his mind. by the way, he calls that 171,000 jobs an economy labor market the a standstill. he also continues to claim he can create 12 million new jobs

in four years. here he was yesterday. >> we're going to create 12 million new jobs and more tak take-home pay. >> i say it's a wish. romney started this. obama picked it up as well. i, too, would love to see 12 million new jobs by 2016. i just can't make the figures add up. it's been done before over the second terms of the clinton and reagan presidencies. the economy with his a very different place. this has got to be key to your decision making. all sorts of people are claiming that we can do this. those were boom times. we're coming out of the worst recession now than this country has ever seen, gdp growth back then was consistently above 4%. one of the best of economy forecasts ran the numbers, predicting 1.3% gdp growth under either candidate's fiscal pln in

the next year or so. i want to bring in one of the authors of romney's 12 million jobs claim, john taylor, professor at stanford university, senior fellow at the hoover institution and an adviser to mitt romney's campaign. now, john, i know you and i talked about this before. i am all for aspirational goals. so is america by the way. they really want big goals. this is not being presented as a wish, goal or aspiration. it has been presented as an achievable promise. i just don't feel that that's entirely honest. >> well, there's a number of ways to look at it and get the same number. first of all, look at the history you were referring to. 1980s, we came out of an even deeper recession than we have now where unemployment got way over 10% and the numbers are much like what's being predicted. second is the plan that governor romney is being put forward. don't raise taxes, get away from the short tn term actions, which

i think has held the economy back because of uncertainty. there's a lot of cash out there that firms are sitting on, waiting for the opportunity. there's a number of ways you can look at this and they all come to this as a sensible, achievable goal if the right policies are put in place. that's what we need to do in this country. >> we've been saying for years that the recovery is weaker than the previous recoveries, even those caused by the financial crisis, which typically are slower than others. you put the blame for this squarely on president obama and his economic policies. i want to show you a couple of charts, john, that the president could use to challenge that assertion. first, this is the unemployment rate since the president took office. it rose following an economic crisis that the president did not create, by the way. since then, it has been heading steadily downward at 7.9%. before you say that's due to labor force dropouts, take a look at another chart for me. private sector jobs have seen a similar rebound. every job that president obama lost since he came into office

has been regained and then some. isn't this clear evidence that the president's policies are working? >> no. because we could be doing so much better. if you just look at that recovery i was referring to in the 1980s. it was a tough time. policies were put in place. we got away from the short termism. tax reform was put in place and we had much sharper -- if you look back in history and people should do this carefully. you see rebounds like this from deep recessions, from financial crisis regularly. it's a real disappointment to me, a tragedy at this point that unemployment is still so high. americans should not put up with this. you don't hear much talk about unemployment from the administration these days because it's so high still. and that's the problem. we can do much better. i know. i've seen the history. i've seen the policies. the more people look at it, in fact, i think they become convinced we can do much better. >> john, good to see you as

always. thanks very much for joining us. john taylor. how is the stock market going to react to this final jobs report before election day? we'll head to wall street to find out. you are watching a special edition of "cnn newsroom." ine there've been some good days. and some difficult ones. but, through it all, we've persevered, supporting some of the biggest ideas in modern history. so why should our anniversary matter to you? because for 200 years, we've been helping ideas move from ambition to achievement. and the next great idea could be yours. ♪

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alison kosik is at the big board. >> dow is up 52 points as the bell rang a moment ago. futures have been slightly lower before the jobs report came out and then you saw stocks immediately pop into positive territory. the carryover is a bit more muted than we expected because the way the markets see this jobs report, there's a harsh reality to it. 171,000. no doubt it's good. because the jobs market has such a big hole to climb out of, it's not really a rousing jump. they're not really going to do any real trading until after the presidential election next week. christine? >> thanks, alison. ali, let's bring you in here, talk more about ohio. you're with cnn political contributor john avlon. cnn poll of polls show president obama with a three-point lead over mitt romney in the state. no republican has won the white

house without carrying ohio. how many times have we said that over the past nine months? 2008 the president won by, i think, four points. you've been talking to undecided voters in the state. how do you think today's job report plays in ohio? >> reporter: well, i happen to think that this may be the single most motivating event to take place at this point in the campaign. there have been other motivating events. on its own, this wouldn't be such a big deal. in a race that is so tight, uncommitted, undecided and even decided voters could be convinced to come out and cast a ballot for the candidate they think can best propel the country forward. throughout our cnn election express tour, we've heard over and over again that the number one issue is jobs. here is what the voters have told us. >> depressed areas, a lot of joblessness. >> i need a job next year. just looking around at the unemployment rate it's so scary

to me. >> the last four years has not been very good for our small business. >> with the debt crisis our country has, that burden is going to be on us in the future. >> all the skills i had are obsolete now. >> reduced wages, shipping jobs overseas. >> we lost 55,000, 60,000 factories. >> we probably never will have the things we did 30, 40 years ago. >> balance the budget. somewhere along the line it's going to come back and haunt us. >> it is for us now to choen up the mess that they made. >> reporter: whoa heard a lot of it. disappointment. frustration. there is nothing in today's number that fundamentally changes the fact that we are moving generally more slowly than predicted and more slowly than we would like to be moving. john avlon joins me.

let me ask you this. ohio is a real reflection of the american population. pretty much every issue going on in america, foreclosure, energy, jobs, debt and deficit. it all plays out here. >> absolutely. >> what are you hearing? >> a couple of reality checks here. uptick is bad political news broadline. >> uptick to 7.9. >> i know that's not what you think is important. here is what's really interesting, though. consistently talking to people. manufacturing is starting to come back, even in places like toledo. interesting statistic about toledo. when president obama was inaugurated, unemployment was 12.6% here. now it's 7.5%. so it's consistent not only with that overall decline here but also with the dynamic where ohio's unemployment rate is less than the nation's. that hasn't happened in decades. there's a silver lining even with all the frustration about the sluggish recovery in ohio. >> so the issue is like in ohio

and everywhere else -- in many of the swing states, they have republican governors. >> that's right. >> who takes responsibility for the fact that in some cases you might be better off than you were four years ago? we see signs on the highway. one yesterday said no president obama, we're not better off than we were four years ago. not everybody shares the view. we talk to a lot of people in ohio who says things are better. who gets the credit? >> the republicans say it has nothing to do with president obama or the auto bailouts but policies put in place by governor kasic. a very controversial ad, the oug auto bailout has helped the economy and the industry. that is tangible. i think president obama gets a degree of credit for that. there's still this frustration about the overall trajectory. you hear a lot of swing voters, folks that are economically squeezed talking about frustration with deficit and debt. that comes out a surprising amount even how people feel about jobs and their paycheck. >> we're hearing it from liberal

and democratic voters saying i am kind of concerned about that. >> on a kitchen table level, people understand that they can't spend more than they take in and they don't understand how the government can get away with that indefinitely. >> in these swing states, christine, it's very interesting, constructive the things we're learning about. >> go find those two guys on the bus if you're undecided in ohio. they want to hear more about what you're going to do on tuesday. after the break we'll visit a few other battleground states where cnn reporters have been talking about the with the voters about issues that matter most to them. t because of busins people like you, things are beginning to get rolling. and regions is here to help. making it easier with the expertise and service to keep those wheels turning. from business loans to cash management, we want to be your partner moving forward.

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welcome to this special u.s. jobs report edition of "cnn newsroom." i'm ali velshi, coming to you from toledo, ohio. >> and i'm christine romans in new york. cnn reporters across the country

and in america's battleground states. john zarrella in florida. poppy harlow is in iowa, ted rowlands is in wisconsin and kyung lah is in nevada. the highest unemployment rate of all of the toss-up rates at 11%. colorado, close to the national average. iowa, my home state, 5.2%. there they havy problem finding workers. ali, where you are in ohio, it's 7%. finally in florida, 8.7%. john zarrella, 8.7% unemployment, is that the co-issue voters will take to the ballot box in florida on tuesday? >> reporter: there's no question about it, chrischristine. they're already taking it to the ballot box. this is the early voting line. tomorrow is the last day for early voting and the line is probably two hours long already here now. the key issue here with

unemployment, construction industry very hard hit, particularly new housing starts. the reason for that? there's such a glut of foreclosed existing homes that that supply is still out there to be absorbed. just up the coast, couple hundred miles, kennedy space center, coincidentallily, retiring the last of the space shuttles today, "atlantis." more than 4,000 highly skilled workers lost their jobs with the closing of the space shuttle program. yes, indoed, jobs in florida is the number one issue. ali? >> all right. thanks, john. cnn's poppy harlow is in cedar falls, iowa. much lower than the national average, 5.2% unemployment there. tell me about the issues that voters are concerned about in iowa. >> reporter: it's not jobs. yes, they care about it. they want better-paying jobs but jobs is not the number one issue

here. their unemployment rate was 6% when the president was inaugurated. it's 5.2% now, far below the national average. the numbers here tell a good story for the president. the farming sector is very strong here. housing crisis sort of all but surpassed iowa. when you dig into the numbers you see something else. here is what people care about here, the deficit. they hate the government spending. they hate the debt. i want you to listen to a guy that sums up the sentiment here as we've been driving across iowa, bob bradshaw. >> reporter: is it the jobs or the deficit? >> both. you know, if we're not bringing it in, whoa shouldn't spend it. and if it's, you know, tough on us to make it better for our kids, i'm willing to sacrifice now to milk it better for our kid kids. >> reporter: they very much lock big picture here and long term. not just immediate.

not just the economy right now. one of the business owners i talked to here yesterday who runs a steel working factory said to me if i right knee my business the way the government runs it, i would be out of business. and he's right. we hear that across the board. here, it is big picture. when it comes to jobs they say sure the number here is good but the jobs we're getting here are paying less. that's a number that christine brought up this morning when the jobs report came out. a lot of jobs being created pay about $14 an hour or less. that is an issue here in iowa. christine? >> thanks, poppy. ted rowlands is in washington. that fiscal cliff, that's been felt where you are. how are wisconsin voters feeling it? how is it factoring into their vote? >> reporter: well, christine, in large part, which isconsin's wos jobs. they've only recovered about 10%

of the jobs lost. unemployment say little lower than the national average, about 7%. it's hovered there the past six months. there's good news and bad news goes back and forth. oshkosh, they make military vehicles, announced that they're laying off 450 full-time positions either united auto worker employees in the green bay area, the president was there yesterday. governor romney is here in milwaukee today. the bottom line here in wisconsin, it is the same thing we're feeling across the country. one day there's good news. one day there is bad news. and the job losses in the green bay area is very bad news because those are very good jobs. that, of course, would lend to folks voting for mitt romney because their livelihood is directly attached to defense spending. that will translate, however, across the state. ali? >> ted, thank you. to cnn's kyung lah in colorado.

unemployment there at 8%, just a little bit above the national average. will it come down to jobs for colorado voters? >> reporter: absolutely. you have it absolutely right, ali. it is about jobs. it is about how have people been personally affected by a job loss either within their own families or among friends? here in this very key swing state we've gone down to the counties, we've talked to the key demographics and we talked to the women. suburban women here are critical for either party in order to grab those states. we talked to women and they say this is about job security. who is it going to be in white house who will make sure that over the next four years my family isn't going to be impacted, what i put on my kitchen table isn't going to be impacted? we went out and talked to college students. they were really enthusiastic in 2008, helping barack obama win this state, winning the nine electoral votes. this time around they are not as enthusiastic. college students are telling us

the reason for that is because they don't think they'll have a job when they graduate from college. so, christine, you have it absolutely right. what it comes down to here in this swing state, it is about jobs and how it's affected people personally. >> kyung lah, the white house just released its statement on the jobs report this morning, saying -- the very first words are more work needs to be done, it provides further evidence that the u.s. economy is continuing to heal. so both the white house and the romney campaign weighing in. the last jobs report, of course, is not without controversy. some even accused the obama administration of cooking the books to bring the unemployment down. misguided accusation, for sure. the method used to calculate the numbers can be confusing. with so much on the line we'll explain exactly how it works and talk to the secretary of labor about today's report. busier highways.see usn on once empty fields. everyday you see all the ways all of us at us bank

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month there was quite a bit of controversy when the jobs report was re leleased and unemploymen ticked up to 8.0%, but now tick back slightly to the right now sh, and some people felt that the obama administration had manipulated the numbers after president obama's first panned debate. this was tweet ed at the time b jack welch, unbelievable jobs numbers, these chicago guys will

do anything. can't debate, so change numbers. that sparked debate from welch and especially from me. this time we don't want the give the conspiracy theorists a chan chance. christine roman is going to break down how these numbers are calculated and then. christi christine? >> well, the report is two sides of the same coin. think of it that way. the jobs report is two separate surveys. the unemployment rate comes from a survey of 60,000 households and the jobs created survey comes from 141,000 businesses. to get the unemployment rate 2200 census workers interviewed 66,000 households. everyone is over 16 is classified as employed, unemploymented or not in the labor fost. then they extrapolate the rate. the job creation number comes from another sample which is the sample of 141,000 businesses who tell the government how many

workers they have on the payroll. like the household survey, the sample is meant to reflect the whole u.s. and includes factories and stores and teachers and schools and both surveys look at a particular pay period, and usually around the 12th day of the month. so this month, it was the week of october 7th to october 13th. households were contacted the following week to find out if they had been looking for work or were looking for a job from the 7th to 13th. businesses submitted payroll information for roughly the same period, ali. once all of the numbers are in, the labor department gives them to the president's council of economic advisers, just the day before they are released. ali. >> right. it is a very -- what a great explanation. thank you, christine. we do have a lot of people genuinely asking us about that. let's bring in the labor s secretary of the united states hilda solis. we spoke a month ago and you were really steamed about the allegation that people in your

department, the bureau of labor statistics which is part of the labor department might have politicized these numbers. >> that is correct. i said at the time that i thought it was ludicrous and i still will back up the statistics for the bureau of labor statistics. these are hard worksing people. this week they were still out working and even as the storm hit, they were here to crank out the legitimate numbers and get them in place and ready to go. these are dedicated individuals and highly trained group of people who run that what is view ed as a independent division of the bureau of labor statistics, but the job report for this month is one picture of what is happening. when you look over the course of the last almost three years now that the president, and 3 1/2 years that the president has been in office, we have actually made up for the job losses, and ak schaully added 1.2 million jobs on top of that, and we are

looking at building back manufacturing jobs, and 500,000 or more that have been added. things are, you know, sure they can be better. no doubt. but i think that the path that the president has laid out is appropriate, and we look forward to working with everyone to see that we can put more people back to work. >> secretary solis, let me ask you quickly about hurricane sandy and given that christine explained how the numbers are tabulated and what is likely to be the net effect of that? >> well, we won't know until we get our people out on the ground again and do those surveys that have to be conducted. certainly those states that are affected, we would imagine that there is going to be some dropoff of employment, but that is why the federal government is working with local government and state government and you saw the, you know, the saw the results of that with romney, and sorry, with christie and the president, and we here at the department of labor are already

issuing emergency grants and signed off on one yesterday for new jersey for $15 million the begin with for cleanup and recovery for those areas that are hard hit. we should be thinking of how we can work together on that. >> and secretary solis, i could not agree more. >> ali, as we have been telling you a better than expected jobs report for october, but the economy is struggling to gain altitude. special jobs report focus on ""cnn newsroom"" coming up. role. ♪ with a remarkable new interior featuring the available chevrolet mylink infotainment system. this is where sophisticated styling begins. and where it ends? that's up to you. it's here -- the greatest malibu ever. ♪ ♪

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♪ if you got a brand new key we just heard from the labor secretary that superstorm sandy is not in these numbers this month, but you know, ali n the months ahead, we will be seeing and feeling the impact of this storm in every economic statistic in the next few statistic in the next few months. -- captions by vitac -- www.vitac.com and we will talk about it in the election, and the unemployment rate the 7.8% or 7.9% and i have been saying it and you have been saying it for a long time and we concentrate on it because it is a political number, but we need to consider other things in the jobs report, the number of jobs created as well as the wages and the quality of jobs coming back and make all of that into your decision when making a decision. christine, i will talk to you later. for the rest of you, stay right here as carol costello takes over the next hour when we expect to hear live from president obama as he reacts to this, the final jobs report, before he puts his job on the

line in four days. >> and also we would like to thank allen krueger and the rest of our guests here. we send it now to carol costello in the "cnn newsroom." good morning to you. i'm carol costello, and thank you for being with us. it is a busy hour in the "cnn newsroom," and just ahead, the superstorm sandy, and the misery of long lines and short tempers and the staggering estimates of what it will cost us. politic pocketbooks and the new numbers are out, and the presidential campaigns are all in four days before the election. mitt romney and barack obama present their closing arguments, and we are sharing their cnn op-ed posted just this morning on cnn.com. both men offering competing visions to win your vote. here is a little bit of the

rival messages that went online on our website this morning. president obama rallying around superstorm sandy and a government response that has been earning praise frankly. the op-ed, quote, the petty differences that consume us in normal times quickly melt away. there are no democrats or republicans in the storm, only fellow americans, and that is how we get through the most trying times, together. end quote. governor romney instead writing about the trying times of a troubled economy. quote, we have been mired in economic slowdown which has left millions of our fellow citizens unemploy and the consequences dreams shattered and lives disrupted an plans deferred and the hopes dimmed can be found all around us, end quote. of course, covering both campaigns this morning. let's begin with our white house correspondent brianna keilar who is in near columbus, ohio n franklin county. tell us more about president obama's final message to the

voters. >> well, carol a lot of the message is going to be about patience, and things are getting under way here in hilliard and i have to tell you that governor strickland was just introduced. we know that president obama is on the way here, and we are expecting that is a message of patience that he will be urging. probably using the jobs numbers from today to say, look, the economy is slowly but surely moving in the right direction, and this isn't the time to change course. obviously, countering very much to what we have heard from governor romney as he tries to urge the voters to change course. if yesterday was any indication, expect some strong jigs at governor romney for positioning himself as the candidate of change in this election. we heard yesterday that president talk about how mitt romney is not the candidate of change, but he has not put specifics on to a number of his economic plans. and we are expecting him to hit governor romney in the same way today, carol. >> all right. brianna keilar, we will get back to you as soon as the president -- is that a live

picture of the p president getting off of air force one. he is on tape, and that is when he arrived in ohio. when he speaks, we will take the comments live. and a romney event is about to get under way in alice, wisconsin, a suburb of milwaukee. he is due to speakt the end of of the hour, and we will take his comments live as well.einha mitt romney campaign. >> well, within the hour, mitt romney came out with a statement, and in reference to the jobs report. he said, for four years president obama said things are getting better and we are making progress, but for too many american families those words ring hollow. we can have good economic growth and create good paying jobs and give american families the security and opportunity they ne

need. the same words that mitt romney has been using for a year and a half now that he can do a better job of creating the jobs, and that the president's policies are not working. you will hear nrm on the campaign trail in wisconsin repeating the language in front of cameras very soon. carol? >> and we should mention what the jobs report said. added 171,000 jobs which is better than expected, but the unemployment rate picked up to 7.9%, though it is below that psychological thing of 8% which i suppose some would say is good for the president. i want to ask you about the pew research center poll. when voters were asked who would do a better job at the economy, most people say romney, but when you ask voters who best understands the problems the answer is obama. so what does that mean? >> it is a problem for mitt romney. yes, for me a year and a half has been running for second time as a president has been touting the business background and the skills in creating jobs in the

private sector, and that does seem to ring true to people, and he would do a slightly better job than the president would when it comes to the economy and when it comes to job jobs, but important, do you understand how middle-class people are dealing with pain and the economy, and there mitt romney seems to be lacking in the poll numbers and that is important, because people not only vote on the issues, but who they feel can relate to them, which candidate, and one thing, carol, about the economy, since 2007, the economy has been the top concern for american voters and it has not changed and what is the top issue for americans? jobs, jobs, jobs. carol. >> tuesday should be an interesting day. >> yes. >> and hopefully it will be over by wednesday is all i have to say. paul steinhauser, thank you very much. reminder that president obama is scheduled to speak in ohio in 15 minutes, and we will take you back there live. we will also take you to mitt romney's event in wisconsin set to begin in 40 minutes.

a problem following superstorm sandy is getting worse. we are talking about the search for gas. people are lining up for a miler omore at the few gas stations are open. many gas stations don't have power for the pumps or they are s simply out of gas. >> i was online and i see three gas stations that closed down while i was there. >> this is your fourth try? >> yes. we come from jersey, and this is probably three hours to get into the city, and there is no gas there. and just to say it is a shame what is happening. >> a shame. >> no one knew. >> that is just gas for cars. a lot of people need gas to run the generators because as you well know power is still out at so many homes. u.s. death toll from sandy has risen to 92. four of those in new york city alone and half of the deaths are coming from staten island which is one of the hardest hit areas.

most people without power and most say they have not seen fema or the american red cross. one woman begged for help as governor chuck schumer toured the area. >> we are going to die. with the weather, we are going to die. we are going to freeze. we have 90-year-old people. we are going to die. you don't understand, you have get the trucks here on the corner, now. >> we are trying to get them. >> this is three days. >> staten island borough president said they did show up yesterday and he told anderson cooper that fema will bring more help today. >> someone to speak to, how do i get help? with whom do i get help? how do my children go to school? they don't have a home? this is answers to be answered by government and it is to do for people who can't do for

themselves, and no answers forrer that. >> listen, we want to touch base with you tomorrow, and if they don't show up, will you let us know? >> yes. thank you for giving us the publicity that we need. thank you very, very much. god bless you. >> cnn's brian thompson in statten island this morning. do you see fema anywhere around? >> carol, i don't see fema, but doi see city bulldozers and other city apparatus, and national guard troops walking down the street, and they may walk in front of me in couple off seconds here. there is relief being driven in, and people are walking around and starting to pick up the pieces. you will see some evidence that there are official entities here to help clean up this neighborhood, and help us to start clean up. you get the sense that people are overwhelmed by the entire thing, and yes, the relief has start t

started to come, but they have complained that it is a little bit too late. you will get a bulldozer crossing in front of me in a second, and as soon as he passes here, i will show you -- i will show you this house here that was leveled. this is the home of an elderly couple who lived here. we are told by relatives that the couple got out in front of the storm. they are fine. but their house is pretty much completely destroyed. it looks like a total loss. some of the couple's relatives are here to try to get some possessions and bring them out loaded on to a van there. there is a cabinet here, and a couple of items there. down the street, a woman was talking to us from the top floor of her parent's house, and she talked to us about their sense of loss here. >> my parents are elderly and my father has a bad heart. i have not brought him down to see the wreckage. i have been showing him pictures. i am getting what little memories they have left. they have nothing left on the front floor. >> reporter: and you know some of the residents have flood

insurance, but others have told us that they don't have flood insurance. a lot of the people are waiting in anticipation for the insurance companies to weigh in and tell them what to do and don't cover in this situation. in the meantime, there is a lot of community work being done here. just down the street yesterday, a whole bank of clothing and other items that people locally just donated on their own. this community is really starting to band together and just trying to pick up the pieces here, carol. >> that is a good thing. just another word about, because of all fema's response has been positive. so once word went out on cnn that fema's help was needed, what happened, brian? >> well, you know, we did have some government officials, and state officials and others talking about the fact that, yes, relief is coming here. they had given an indication that fema was at least going to be on the ground if it had not been on the ground in some measure already. so there was some assurance, and

here comes another apparatus like a forklift coming by me. so there was some assurance that red cross and fema and others were going to be here as of yesterday. thou, we didn't see much of ama you don't want to place blame, because the travel is problematic. roads are blocked. long lines for gas and roads closed. it is very difficult to move around and a lot of traffic snarls so the logistics of getting government agencies here to help out is probably very difficult. >> brian todd, reporting livein this morning. we are joined by the president of the economic advisers next. ah.

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you are taking a live look at franklin county, ohio, hilliard county, right where the fair grounds are, and the president is expected to speak in eight minutes. of course, when president obama gets behind the podium, we will take you there live. as you know, we have been talking about the jobs report all this morning. the last report to come out before the voters go to the polls on tuesday. the number of jobs added, 171,000. that is better than expected. but the unemployment rate inched up to 7.9%. allen krug seger is the chairmaf the president's panel of economic advisers. thank you for being here this morning. >> my pleasure. >> how would you characterize this report? >> i think that today's report together with other information that is coming in show us a picture of an economy that is healing. we are making progress. been recovering from the deep

pr problems created by the recession back in 2008. in the last year, we have added 2.1 million jobs and that is more than the year before which is 1.9 million. in the last year the unemployment rate has dropped by a full percentage rate, so it is important to build on the progress by doing things like extending the middle-class tax cuts which the senate has passed and the president has been urging the house the follow suit and pass so that the middle-class families don't have a $2 th,000 tax increase coming next year. >> i think that when the voters look at the numbers, if they look at the the numbers, they will see a economy recovering rather sluggishly and they didn't think much about the number numbers after that, because it is all in how people feel, right? it is the perception of what is happen ing in the country. isn't that your biggest challenge to convince people that the economy is getting better. how do you do that? >> well, i think that people have a pretty sophisticated view of the economy.

they understand that recession that the country went through in 2008, early 2009 was like any other recession that we have seen. that we had a financial crisis, a housing bubble. and we had severe problems to recover from that we had inadequate income growth for family families in the decade of the recession. people unts that it was a long time making, and they want us to have a plan to dig out of the problems. that is what the record over the last four years shows. over the last 32 months we have added 5.4 million jobs. it is not enough given how many we have lost in the recession that began in 2008. but it shows that we are headed on a much better path than we have been on. >> you have put out a statement after the jobs report came out saying that the economy is continuing to heal, but mitt romney came out with a statement of his own. he said this jobs report is a sad reminder that our economy is not yet recovered. he actually says that there are 23 million people who are

struggling for work. where does that number come from? >> if you look at the path of employment it is falling, and the reason is because job growth has increased. these signs and i can tell you as an economist that this is a sign that the economy is healing from the deep problems that have taken years to build up and resulted in the recession back in 2008. >> but there are still a vast number of underemployed people, and a vast number of people who have quit looking for work altogether, and what do you do about those people? >> well, look, we want the build on the progress that has been made over the last 3 1/2 years. that is why the president has proposed extending the middle class tax cuts, and that is why he has taken administrative actions to make it easier for families to refinance the mortgage

mortgages and pressing congress to extend that type of access for refinancing ability to more and more families. that is why he has supported giving more funding to state and local governments so that they can keep more teachers on the job. those are the kinds of concrete efforts that independent economists say will created a dission addi additonal jobs. we want to keep at it until everybody who wants to find a job can find one. >> alan krueger, thank you so much for joining us this morning. >> thank you. i want to head out to milwaukee, wisconsin, where there is a romney event about to take place in 30 minutes. jik acosta is standing by. where are you, jim? >> carol, we are now rolling en route to the romney campaign event. i am going to hold on for dear life here. we are on the press bus following the other press buses

en route to the event happening in wisconsin. within the hour that you mentioned a few moments ago that you were talking to the head of the president of the council of economic advisers and alan krueger talking about the jobs report, and as you mentioned mitt romney came out with a statement showing that the economy is still at a standstill. we will hear more of that from the gop nominee in the remarks later on this morning when he speaks to a crowd gathered in wisconsin. i can tell you, carol, this is when mitt romney is expected to give his closing arguments. i talked to a senior romney adviser who says this is going to indeed happen in the event and that mitt romney will be framing the big choice that the adviser calls it between change and the status quo, and a new course like another course of the last five years and you will hear reports, and that is what you will be hearing from mitt romney. and we will head to battleground state of ohio and guess who will be at the event with mitt romney

when he takes the stage with -- >> oh, my gosh. we are not. that is a tease. jim acosta, who? you froze. who. >> on the campaign trail, that is right. >> okay. well his image froze on the bus. we will get the answer for you after the break, and also take you back to hilliard, ohio, where the president is about to speak. to the gas stationing about once a month. last time i was at a gas station was about...i would say... two months ago. i very rarely put gas in my chevy volt. i go to the gas station such a small amount that i forget how to put gas in my car. [ male announcer ] and it's not just these owners giving the volt high praise. volt received the j.d. power and associates appeal award two years in a row. ♪

okay. we have the answer for you. mitt romney's final campaign event will be in westchester, ohio which is republican country in southwestern ohio and his special guest will be the ryans and the romney kids and kid rock. now you know. 23 minutes past the hour, and it is almost over. and in just four days the americans will choose the president and the race is close and it could come down to a few thousand votes coming down to a few toss-up states like nevada where the president has a razor-thin lead. as miguel marquez found out, nevada is betting on a economic recovery. >> here we are h are here in th

of the stratosphere here in nevada. in a city that fell harder and faster than any place that fell in the country. this better be a very close election. the stratosphere like all of vegas suffered the worst of the recession. >> at some point you had to make a decision to stay home or go big or shutdown? >> yes. >> reporter: they sunk $20 million into upgrades including a new restaurant and the sky-jump thing, and most importantly, more than 100 new jobs. do you think that las vegas is through the worst of it? >> it feels like it. i drive to work everyday and i see stuff going on that i haven't seen in a little while. >> reporter: things like construction and homes being built in places in a place that had the nation's highest

foreclosure rate. and they say that the decline and rise in vegas is an entree index. before the recession how many were you doing and now? >> before we were doing 400 and now between 400 and 700. big difference. >> reporter: and comedy icon and clark county icon who does four shows a night in vegas says that the city is the coming back, but he knows how torn the country is. >> it is difficult to be excited about obama if you have not worked. i love obama. i understand the appeal of romney in this situation. >> reporter: like voters everywhere, he is tired of the campaign. >> obama has been here more than celine dion has. >> reporter: but hopeful that

americans win. >> this is not a republican or democratic thing, it is a american thing. >> oh, a lot of americans can relate to what louie anderson is saying. miguel marquez joins us from las vegas. i was in las vegas not long ago and i know how hard it was hit by the recession, but sounds like things are coming back, but the question is how strong is the recovery right now? >> yeah. this town is starting to glitter again, but not as glittery as it was. so maybe the most important statistic over the last few days comes from the county of clark county which has 12.3 unemployment at the moment. housing prices for the first time since 2007 have inched up 1%. businesses are starting to hire again here at the stratosphere where they brought in more than 100 people. hotels that have been stuck and sitting for a year without being built, and one of the 70% finished to my right, and they are going to start that one up again. so things are starting to move in the right direction, carol.

>> okay. i thought that you were going the jump again on top of the stratosphere thing. >> oh, we have the figure out how to do that life. that would be cool. >> that would be cool. i'd love to do that. miguel marquez live from las veg vegas. thank you so much. we will take you back to hilliard, ohio for president obama after a break. [ female announcer ] why settle for plain bread?

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when it comes to the national conversation on the election, you probably won't find more heated opinions than on talk radio. rush limbaugh is one of the best known names in the industry and the man that some consider the de facto leader of the republican party, but how much of an impact does he or any other host have at the ballot box? joining me now are men from both sides of the aisle. joe madison from washington, and he is the host of the joe madison show on sirius xm, and he leans left. and then we have the host of the lars larson show who leans right. we welcome to the both of you. >> thank you. >> hello, carol. >> lars, let's start with you. is radio influence overrated? >> no, most talk radio talk to

30 to 40 million americans everyday and we have the luxury of more time, because most of us have hours on the air to talk about the issues and dissect them and put them in context and most of americans are -- and like it or not, carol -- but most of america gets the liberal media and they need context to fit it into. like today's jobs numbers that have to be looked at in the contextt of what is going on in the country. without that context the data does not mean much, and so we give people additional point of view. i say nay-sayers go first. so if friends of the president or fans of the president want to tell me why they love four years of 8%-plus unemployment, they do it and then we have a lively debate, so it is valuable for the voters to absorb that. >> joe, what do you say? do talk radio show hosts -- >> yes, and i have been for over

30 years, and i totally disagree. look, this is how talk radio works. the reason it works this way is that it is much like music. if you are a country and western star, you are going to listen to country and western music. if you like motown or r&b, you will wllisten to the r&b, and i somebody throws some country western on a r&b station or r&b on a country and western station, they won't like it. but i hate to bring up fox, but that is what they do. that is why they are there. if they listen to rush limbaugh, it is because they want to hear what rush limbaugh has to say, and usually 99% of the audience agrees with him. i will tell you they are. >> god bless you, joe, but you are wrong. carol -- >> excuse me, i did not interrupt you and that is something else they do a lot. but here is the point i'm

making. >> yeah, we do. >> and when they listen to my show, they want to hear what i have to say, and i can guarantee and i know why i'm not wrong, because 99% of my audience wants to hear what i have to say, and most of them tend to agree with each other. >> now, you see, lars -- i have to -- >> that is not how it works. >> let me put it to you this way, lars, rush limbaugh, and you don't do into the voting booth with voters. they are in there alone and make their own decisions, and voters are smarter than that frankly, and they can make their own decisions and they are not lemmings. >> well, i reject the idea, carol, that it is pushed by the left. if people listen to the conservative radio are taking their instructions from rush or me, i trust that the americans are smart enough to make their own decisions, and i would point out that joe, god bless you, does not seem to know his audience very well, because the audience research shows that

one-third of the people -- >> what an insault! what an insult! how dare you tell me after 30 years -- >> carol -- >> how dare you tell me after 30 years on my own show, and i have had my own show for 30 years and you are telling me that i don't know my own shou. how arrogant can you be? that is arrogant. oh, please. >> now, joe -- >> lars? >> the audience research done by people who are not on the radio, and the research people say that one-third of the people who listen to my show are progressives and liberals who listen mostly to hear what the enmy is saying, but they are listening. that means when i talk to them, a third of the people do not plan to vote for mitt romney. they don't plan to vote for republicans or conservatives. they are listening to hear the other side, and believe it or not, joe, i listen to the other side. i listen to liberal npr funded by my tax dollars and listen to cnn and absorb the information

because i am smart enough to make my own decisions and assume the rest for my audience. if you believe that 99% of your audience -- >> here is the insult is. >> joe don't know. >> well, let me finish. the insult is when you tell me after 30-plus years on the air that i don't know my audience, that is an insult. >> you don't know that a lot of the conservatives listen to you? >> again, it is is an insult. i know me. i know my audience. i know facts and i don't totally disagree with what your audience might do, and i'm not saying that i don't know your audience, but back to the point that the re reality is that most people listen to talk radio and they listen to what they want to hear what the personalities have to say, and usually, they want to hear what callers are thinking out there. now, we can get some people who are obviously on the other side, and nothing is absolute. but i am telling you that

anybody who knows talk radio knows that most progressives, most liberals tend to listen to progressive liberals. they listen to the ed schultzes and the tom hartmans. >> i have never said otherwise. >> to my good friend, and my good friend steve harvey. and they listen to the folks on sirius xm because they want to hear a perspective that they agree with and that is unfortunately how this election is divided. >> carol -- >> well, let me steer the conversation in a different direction, because i am serious about this, because when i go out in the public, i hear people who are plain tired of the election, and they want it to be ov over. what are you hearing, lars, from your audience? are they excited to go vote? do they want the election to be over? >> well, they want it to be off, but they want a result that is good for america. obviously joe and i disagree about what is good for america. i think that four more years of

barack obama is going to be terrible for america. we need a different kind of leadership for the country and different solutions for the country's problems and are people anxious for the decision to be made, yes. >> and let me tell you what my audience is talking about, because i do know my audience. my audience is very concerned -- >> you think. >> because we spent four hours today talking about the voter intimidation in the polls like in iowa where the romney -- >> oh, please. >> if i keep getting interrupted, then we are not having a conversation. like the people in aiowa where the romney people were telling them that they had to have voter i.d.s and iowa does not even have a voter i.d. law. my people, i am telling you, that we have spent the last few months and we have done a hell of a job at it to tell my people to go vote early. that is how i know i know my people, because you have to go the cleveland and dayton and florida and you will see long lines of my audience and other folk on my side standing in line four or five hours, and that is

why i know my audience and the influence that talk radio has ha had. >> this really illustrates the election this year. i want you the standby and take a short break, because the president is going to speak in a few minutes, and i'd like to get your inpult lars, and joe, so stick around. this is a live shot in hilliard county, ohio, and the president is due to speak at any moment. we will take a break, and we will be right back. i had enough of feeling embarrassed about my skin. [ designer ] enough of just covering up my moderate to severe plaque psoriasis.

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41 minutes past the hour sh, and the race for the white house kicked off in iowa and could end in iowa. it is one of the eight toss-up states that could determine the election and one of the states that the president won comfortably in 2008. today the "wall street journal"/maris poll shows the president with a 6% lead, and as poppy harlow found out, the economy is still on many voters'

minds. >> we started this with a little 24x24 rundown garage. >> reporter: that was 33 years ago. you see, kevin has watched his metal company fall and fall down 20% this year. >> in 2012, it starred slted sl down and been on a downward trend since. >> reporter: but his iowa is not the iowa that economic numbers illustrate. strongly influenced by the housing crisis and reaping the benefits off a strong farming s sector and unemployment well below the national average. >> i realize that here we are not bad in iowa, but our customer base is not basically in iowa. >> reporter: and it matters how california looks and how nevada looks and virginia looks. >> right. >> reporter: it is difficult for mitt romney to say that the economy is in free fall. it is not.

sue heads the iowa democratic party. >> the president won by ten percentage points in the last election, so, sue, why can't he lock it down right now, it is neck and neck. >> well, we feel like we are lock it down. we have been lockingt down for two years. >> i think that she is selling you something to be honest with you. i don't feel it is in lockdown. >> reporter: we found plenty of iowans who are not convinced by either campaign. >> i don't see fiscally how we can sustain ourself, because europe right now and the huge empire countries are going bankrupt. it is going to be us. >> reporter: and orthodonnist chad morarend thinks that the deficit is not enough for either side. >> i don't think that either side has a plan. it is the lesser of two evils. >> reporter: back at creighton

medals, he says he cannot expand. he says he is frozen about whether we fall off of the fiscal cliff. >> i need reassurance that we will take care of the debt problem. that we will help small business. >> reporter: he says he will vote for romney, but he acknowledge s th acknowledges that there is little that the next president can do without congress, and it pains him. >> so this is my dream. i mean, i have everything invested this the company, and so, you know, my name is on the line with the banks, so i have to make it happen. my people are counting on me. >> reporter: the economic numbers in iowa tell a good story for the president, but plenty of people here worry about the big picture and noo neither campaign can take this state's six critical electoral votes for granted. >> poppy harlow joining us from cedar falls, iowa.

poppy, another thing that really matters is how enthusiastic people are to get to the polls to vote for their candidate. what are you seeing enthusiasm-wise in iowa? >> it is a great point, carol. the common thread throughout my week here in iowa has been that there is not a lot of enthusiasm on either side or for these candidates in the race, especially coming down to the economic plans. i have had people say that neither has the plan to solve the debt crisis in this country, and they are not enthusiastic and that is a problem, however, i have spoken to some obama supporters here who are very hopeful that the president's plan, when it comes to education, training, and even obama care, they think it is putting the country in the right direction, and that is what i am hearing from the obama supporters, but this is a state that you know so well, carol, here in the midwest. it is about winning the hearts and minds of the middle class and getting the people out to the polls.

right now the numbers show that it is a tight, tight race and the candidates need every vote they can get. >> but in some states where there is early voting, people are waiting in long lines to vote, so that says that somebody has enthusiasm. >> i want to tell you that iowa is expecting to break a record this year in terms of early voting. over 40% they expect will vote early here, and i can also tell you that the secretary of state has said, and what people here h tell us is that generally more democrats get out to vote early than republicans do, so you are seeing a push here by the romney campaign to get the supporters out to vote early, because it matters hugely here in the final count. >> absolutely. poppy harlow, reporting live from iowa this morning. okay. over to two campaign events going on right now. on the left, you will see hilliard, ohio, and president obama will be speaking there at the franklin county fairgrounds, and that is in columbus country in the middle of the state.

and on the right, you will see west allis, wisconsin, a milwaukee suburb and mitt romney will be behind that podium and i am sure he will bring up the latest jobs report that came out at 8:30 eastern which shows 171,000 jobs created, but the unemployment rate ticked up slightly to 7.9%. with e'll be right back. if you think running a restaurant is hard, try running four. fortunately we've got ink. it gives us 5x the rewards on our internet, phone charges and cable, plus at office supply stores. rewards we put right back into our business. this is the only thing we've ever wanted to do and ink helps us do it. make your mark with ink from chase. and need to get my car fixed? progressive makes it easy, because we give you choices. you can pick where to get your car fixed, we can cut you a check,

or, at our service center, we take care of everything for you. [ relaxing music playing ] [ chuckles ] -whew, so many choices. -take your time. -the service center. -okay. giving you choices -- now, that's progressive. call or click today. all right. back to hilliard, ohio, and president obama. ah, it is good to be back. can everybody give judy a great round of applause for the great introduction? you know, judy is an example of all of the incredible volunteers who have been involved in the campaign each and everyday and knock on doors and making phone calls. i love all of you and i'm grateful to all of you for all of the great work you guys have done. give it up for your former

governor, our great friend, ted strictland. ted has a cold and he is backstage, and he wanted to shake my hand, and he is sick, but he is still out campaigning, tirelessly. now, i love you back. i am glad to be here h. now, you know -- i can tell this is a kind of rowdy crowd. all right. all right. [ crowd chanting "four more years" ]

thank you. well, listen, you know, for the past few days, all of us have been focused on one of the worst storms in our lifetimes, in our history, and i just got off of the phone with my team, emergency management team, and got an update on what is happening in new jersey and new york and connecticut, west virginia where there is a whole lot of snow. you know, as a nation, we mourn those who were lost. you can only imagine what so many families are going through right now. and the message i have said every time i have talked to people back east is that we stand with the people of new jersey and new york and connecticut every step of the way. every step of the way in the hard weeks ahead. and there is a lot of work that is still remains to be done. but we have also been inspired

these last few days by the heroes running into the buildings and wading through water and the neighbors who are helping neighbors cope with tragedy. the leaders of different parties working together to fix what is broken. a spirit that says no matter how bad the storm is, no matter how tough times are, we are all in this together. we rise or fall as one nation. as one people. and you know, that spirit is what's guided this country for more than two centuries, that idea that we are in this together. it has carried us through the trials and tribulations of last 200-something years, but also the last four years. in 2008, we were in the middle of two wars and the worst economic crisis since the great depression. today our businesses have created nearly 5.5 million new

jobs. this morning we learned that companies hired more workers in october than at any time in the last eight months. the auto -- the american auto industry is back on top. home values and housing construction is on the rise. we are less dependent on foreign oil than at any time in 20 years, because the service and the sacrifice of the brave men and women in uniform, the war in iraq is over. the war in afghanistan is end ending. al qaeda has been decimated and osama bin laden is dead. we have made real progress. >> good job, man! >> this guy had a lot of coffee

this morning. you are fired up. okay. so, listen, hold on a second, right. we have made real progress, but we are here today, because we know we have more work to do. as long as there's a single american who wants a job and can't find one, as long as there are families working harder but falling behind, as long as there's a child anywhere in this country whose languishing in poverty and barred from opportunity, our fight goes on. we have got more work to do. our fight goes on, because this nation cannot succeed without a growing and thriving middle-class. our fight goes on because america has always done best

when everybody has a fair shot and everybody is doing their fair share and everybody is playing by the same rules. that is what we believe. that is why you elected me in 2008 and that is why i'm running for a second term as p president of the united states of america. [ crowd chanting "four more years" ] ohio ohio, in four days you have a choice the make. and a lot of people are paying a lot of attention to ohio. rightfully so. this is a choice not just between two candidates or two parties, but it is a choice between two fundamentally different visions of america. it is a choice of going back to the top-down policies that crashed the economy or advancing

the kinds of policies that will make shure that we have a stron and growing middle-class. that's the choice. you know, as americans, we honor the thrivers and the risk-takers and the entrepreneurs and the folks who have always been the driving force behind the free enterprise system, and it is the greatest engine of prosperity that the world has ever known, but we also believe in the country that people succeed and people start businesses and work well in businesses when they have a decent education, when they get a chance to learn new skills, and when we support research in the medical breakthroughs or new technology. we think that america is stronger when we can count on affordable health care and medicare and social security. when there are rules to protect our kids from toxic dumping and

mercury pollution. we believe that the market works better when businesses are protected from the unscrupulous lending practitioners and we believe that washington should not control health care decisions that women can make for themselves. these are the things that we believe. now, for eight years, we had a president who shared our beliefs and his name was bill clinton. his economic plan asked the wealthiest americans to invest more and help america, and at the same time a senate candidate by the name of mitt romney said that bill clinton's plan would hurt the economy and kill jobs. it turns out that the governor's math was just as bad back then as it is today. because by the end of president

clinton's second term, america had created 23 million new jobs and incomes were up, and poverty down and we had the biggest surplus in history instead of a deficit. so we know that the ideas that we believe work. we know that their ideas don't work. for most of the last decade, we tried what they want to do, and giving big tax cuts to the wealthiest americans that we could not afford. we tried giving insurance companies and oil companies and wall street free rein to do what they pleased, and you know what we got? falling incomes, record deficits, the slowest job growth in half a century, and an economic crisis that we have been cleaning up after for the last four years. so, we know what we want to do works. we know what they want to do doesn't work. we know what we want to do grows the middle-class, and what they

want to do squeezes the middle-class. we know that our strategy makes sure that we bring our deficit down in a balanced way and their strategy ends up shooting the deficit up. so we though what the right choice is, but face it, governor romney is a talented salesman. in this campaign, he is trying as hard as he can to repackage these same policies and offer them up as change. we know what change looks like. and what the governor is offering ain't it. giving more power back the biggest banks is not change. another $5 trillion tax cut that favors the wealthy is not change. refusing to answer questions about the details of your policies until after the election, that is not change. we have seen that before.

all right. we have seen that before. ruling out compromise by pledging to rubber stamp the tea party's agenda in congress is not change. and by the way, when you try to change the facts, just because they are inconvenient to the campaign is definitely not change. trying to massage the facts, you know, that is not change. that's just -- we, look, we have been seeing this out of governor romney and the friends over the past few weeks, right here in o ohio. you have got folks who work at the jeep plant who have been calling their employers